The Goalie Under the Bridge
by LikeMulderandScully
Summary: Complete- Brennan brings back two bodies from a crime scene... thing is... ones still alive. An OC joins the squints and, with a bit of help from Angela, ultimately brings our two favorite crime-fighters together.
1. MiniBones

I found this on my computer, apparently I wrote it sometime this fall and completely forgot about it… so more fun reading for you guys! It's a case-style story, with an OC that is sort of an amalgamation of me, a squint and one of my friends. You'll like her, she gets us some BB realizations and, very possibly, some action. Hmmmm…

………..

The sirens piercing the mid-day haze reached all the way to the Starbucks across campus. The manger, a large blond woman, stood outside listening as Booth turned the corner opposite her, sipping a coffee from a Starbucks about 50 miles before.

He reached the crime scene, a large taped-off section of woods between the dorms and science hall of Thompson University, just outside Baltimore. The woods were about 100 yards through and ran along a hill for about a mile until they reached the edge of the campus. So many cop and government- issue vehicles were crammed down the small paved road that ran behind the dorms, that they had started pulling onto the brick paths that criss-crossed the campus. College students littered the sidewalk, some interested in the proceedings, most just passing by on their way to class.

Pulling off into the fray and parking, Booth spotted the medico-legal truck from the Jeffersonian and headed over to the truck where his partner, her colleague and their boss were standing. Zach looked bored out of his mind, Cam looked the same but a little frustrated, and his Bones looked petulant and pouty like Parker after being denied ice cream.

"Hey guys, I take it something is wrong."

"It most certainly is Booth. They said I wasn't authorized to look at the remains until you got here. Who knows what the local PD could be doing to the evidence!"

"Well I'm here now" he addressed his partner, "so let the squinting begin!" "Why weren't you allowed to look without me?"

Cam broke in at this, answering "The normal chain of events was disrupted somehow, so we got the call before you did and arrived before local had even called you guys. We aren't exactly sure how this happened, but we _have_ been here about 2 hours." Booth couldn't help but grimace; "yea, and we ran out of things to talk about almost an hour ago."

"I tried to stimulate a conversation about our experiences during our own undergraduate years, but it failed after I shared my anecdote about vomiting on a fraternity brother and being quite literally thrown out of a frat party." Zach offered.

Booth tried hard not to laugh and headed over to the local police chief.

……………………

"The body was found at the bottom of this hill near the bridge that connects the dorms to the rest of the campus. I'm thinking possible suicide, but we can't be absolutely certain given the state of the body, and since the university has federal funding we placed a call to you guys. Your squints got here a while ago but county regs. don't give them jurisdiction without you here…" Chief Miller related to Booth as the late fall leaves crunched underfoot. "…so I don't think your bone lady likes me very much." Booth chuckled in agreement and asked;

"Who discovered the body?"

"A freshman student here," taking a look at the paper on his clipboard. "Caroline Jameson." " She's still in there if you want to talk to her," he said pointing towards the woods. "She wanted to make sure nobody 'unqualified' touched the 'remains' until your partner got here for some reason."

Booth smiled to himself as he stepped over the yellow tape.

Meanwhile, Brennan had made her way into the woods and found a young brunette who stood, in what could only be defined anthropologically as a defensive ownership stance, in front of what she perceived as a cranium and several ribs protruding from the leaves. The girl's face softened considerably as she approached, evidently recognizing Brennan. She smiled and nervously tucked her shoulder-length hair behind her left ear as she greeted the anthropologist.

"Dr. Temperance Brennan? Hi, I'm Caroline. I quite literally stumbled over him on my way to class, taking a short cut through the woods."

"Him?"

"Yea, based on his pelvis and skull I'm pretty sure _he_ is African-American and about my age, maybe a little older 'cause his crainial sutures are pretty much fused except for the coronal. Based on decomp I'd also say that he's been out here since June at least; probably just after the campus cleared for the summer, but that's a bit of a leap at this point."

"How… are you a forensics major?"

"Nope, I'm an art major. Was I right?"

Booth had reached his partner by this point and was amused by the look of what could only be confusion on Brennan's face. She turned to him and frowned.

"Booth is this a joke? Did you tell her that?"

"Did I tell her what Bones?"

A snort of laughter from the girl made them both look at her in astonishment.

"Sorry Dr. Brennan, I should have told you this before, Forensic Anthropology is sort of a hobby of mine… I read your first novel and thought the field was so awesome that I started reading about it, I've read almost every non-textbook on the subject and I'm halfway through a beginner's textbook." It was Booth's turn to be surprised as she continued, "I had read some of the released case files from the Jeffersonian, so after I contacted campus police, I called there and they said they'd let you know." "And I know how important evidence is, so nobody has touched anything, except for when I tripped over him to begin with."

Booth was even more surprised when Brennan smiled the smile that was usually only reserved for him and Angela. This girl had won his Bones over in a matter of minutes, when it had taken him nearly three weeks. But then again, Caroline had liked her to begin with.

"Thanks Caroline, I'm glad it was you that found our victim here, sometimes even he forgets about the crucial nature of good rational evidence." Brennan said as she tossed a look of triumph back to Booth. "This is Agent Booth, He's my partner from the FBI."

"Hi Agent Booth. Is that what I should call you?"

"You can just call me Booth, everybody else does."

The girl smiled and turned to Brennan and asked "Do you think I could stay and watch you retrieve? This is kind of a once in a lifetime thing for me, and I'll stay out of the way, promise."

"Sure. Be my guest."

Booth was kind of astonished as he watched this normal seeming college girl, wearing Ugg boots and a 'kenya dig it?' t-shirt, smile in delight and back away to sit on a nearby rock as Bones snapped on her gloves, crouched over the remains and began to carefully clear the leaves off the skeleton and speak into her tape recorder. _Why was she so interested? I mean it's flattering, but kind of weird. Didn't she say she was an Art major? Yup, I think so 'cause she just took a sketchbook out and started to draw the scene. How the hell does she know all this stuff?_

Brennan and Zach took about an hour to get the remains into evidence bags as Cam took samples for Hodgins, pictures for Angela and did some paperwork for Booth. Caroline was still sitting there, enthralled, when they finished. She had been evidently entertaining Booth with anecdotes about her mathematics professor and various other things. It was only then, upon spotting the girls sketchbook; that Brennan registered what she had said about being an art major. _She's interested and artistic, like Angela; that must be why I like her so much. She's also more intelligent than any average undergrad I've met in a long time, probably since Zach; I mean she learned the basics of skeletal identification from a book with no instruction. Hmm..._ Brennan stood there watching her draw for a few more minutes and then heard a call that was obviously Booth from outside the woods.

"Hey Bones! Zach's all packed up. Let's hit it!"

"K Booth, give me a minute." She hollered back and then turned to the young artist who had stood up and begun to put her things away. She had an idea. "Caroline?"

"Yes Dr. Brennan?"

"Would you like to serve as sort of a shadow for this case since you seem so interested in our work? You can come to D.C. for a while and watch us process the evidence as well as see how we solve the case, the only thing you have to do is promise not to talk about it until the case is closed." Caroline's face broke into the biggest grin the doctor had seen since the Christmas Russ got a motorbike. Brennan thought for a second, then added: " If you wanted, you could come and stay with me since the commute to D.C. is so awful."

Caroline finally regained speech and gushed "Wow! Totally! I'd love to, this is so surreal!"

"Great." Brennan said with a soft smile "Let's go tell Booth."

Booth and Cam readily agreed to the plan. Booth liked this girl and Cam had been suitably impressed with her as well. They arrived at the Jeffersonian soon after a quick stop at Caroline's quaint suburban home and a more lengthy explanation to her parents.


	2. MiniAngela

"Ho-ly…" were the first two syllables out of Caroline's mouth when they stepped inside the Jeffersonian.

"That was my same reaction." Booth said in response to her astonished face. "I couldn't believe that all of this was just used for science."

Brennan just smiled and headed over to Angela and Hodgins who she could see were not working at all, since the former was sitting in her grinning fiance's lap whispering in his ear.

"Hey sweetie" said her best friend greeted her "that took longer than we expected… not that we're complaining." She added in a sly voice.

"Yea, just some red tape, but I brought back two bodies instead of one this time." she replied motioning to Caroline.

"She's cute. Who is she?" the artist inquired looking over to where Caroline and Booth were talking and laughing. So Brennan them the whole story; Angela smiled as she finished and completed her last sentence.

"So you offered her something that you thought she might like. That's great Sweetie, you really have come a long way with your social skills. A year or two ago you would have blown her off."

"A year or two ago you would have blown me off." The eptimologist added facetiously.

Brennan gave him a look that clearly said 'so funny, Hodgins'. "Thanks for the interest in my social development, but I've got remains coming in; Ange, could you show Caroline around a little while I do a preliminary exam?" And without waiting for an answer she walked off the platform and straight to her office.

"Well she's still got a ways to go." Hodgins said grinning in bemusement.

"But that's what I love about her as a best friend, without Booth and I she'd be so lost."

The forensic artist soon spotted Caroline chattering Zach's ear off, something about her cousin and the newspaper article about the Jeffersonian. Angela decided, yet again, to save Zach from basic human interaction.

"Caroline?" The girl turned around. "Hi. I'm Angela. Bren said I should show you around a bit."

"Hi. Oh! You're the forensic artist, and apparently the one marrying the one Booth calls 'the bug and slime guy' over there."

"Is it that obvious?" They both laughed and turned to leave.

"Bye Zach, I'll give you her number later."

"Ok, Thanks!" He answered with a rare smile.

Angela decided that she liked this girl, she'd won over everyone in the lab in a matter of minutes and gotten Zach a date in less than five.

………………….

"So here's the basement vault. I'm pretty sure this is the last fun thing to show you. We're we are housing evidence for a serial killer case we're in the middle of… It's a pretty cool case, and also gross because it involves cannibalism." Angela said finishing up the tour. She and Caroline had had fun visiting all of the workstations and speculating what each machine did, after four and a half years Angela still didn't know what all of them did.

"There's a whole bunch of really expensive things that were stolen from museums and… my fiancé under the table… Hodgy?"

"Yea? Oh, Hey guys." He said removing his goggles. "How was the tour?"

"Interesting. I had no idea that so much technology and intelligence could be housed in one building without it imploding." Caroline said with a dry grin.

Hodgins chuckled and returned to whatever he was doing under the granite table. Caroline and Angela started ascending the stairs to the lab; Caroline was quiet for a moment, then asked:

"What kind of art do you do other than facial reconstructions and Angelator holographics?"

"Mostly oil paint, since I don't have a whole lot of free time right now. You?"

"Same. But being in the middle of my foundations year I haven't been able to do much of anything outside of class and homework. Abstract, Representational, or Realistic?"

"Representational."

"Sweet."

"Thanks. It's nice to have another artist around… let's go see what Bren is up to."

"Yea. And _you_ can tell me what's going on between her and her partner."

The girls arrived, giggling, at the platform as Brennan finished with the skeleton. She turned to the artists with a mixture of a mysterious grin and pride on her face.

"Caroline, you were absolutely right; male, late teens-early twenties, African-American. Can you see the one other distinguishing identificational feature?"

Caroline beamed at the compliment and stepped up to the exam table to take a shot at the request. Taking a few minutes to look carefully over the bones, she finally stepped back and grinned mischeviously.

"His right proximal phlanges has been severely fractured what looks like several times in different places and healed leaving a large callous."

Both the scientist and artist were impressed. "He recieved a hard blow with a rigid object like this" Brennan added hitting the palm of her hand with her other fist just below the thumb.

"Angela could you work on a face?"

"Sure sweetie." Angela turned to her young enigmatic friend who was now staring at the thumb with a face similar to Brennan's 'I know there's an answer here' face. "Now you get to see what the Angelator and I can really do."

………………..

"There's not much distinctive about his face." Brennan sighed, turning to he best friend "and you're sure he didn't match any of the college's database of students?"

"Yea. I double-checked, he must have been taken out of the system when he disappeared."

"K, Bones I got the files of all of the kids missing from the University and the nearby town in the past 3 years…" Booth said entering Angela's office with two boxes of files piled up in his arms. "…and there's a lot of them." His partner seemed surprised, so he tried to explain. "Kids sometimes drop out or take breaks without telling anyone, disappear with boyfriends or girlfriends, or go home for a week or two without telling their roommate who files a missing persons case and forgets to have it closed when they turn up; unintentionally making our job a lot harder."

"Oh. Well I guess we're at kind of a dead end until we get through these files and identify this boy."

"It's quittin time anyways Bones, let's take the junior squint and go eat."

"Where do we eat?" Caroline asked with a laugh at Booth's new nickname for her.

The partners shared a knowing smile. "The Diner."

Booth, Brennan and Caroline had an enjoyable dinner comparing college anecdotes, heading to Brennan's afterwards to begin going through the abundant missing person's files provided by the university. They spent almost an hour isolating the black males, but still ended up with about 20 files.

"How can they all be so similar?" a frustrated Brennan exclaimed.

"Kids are pretty much like that today, Most play sports or intramurals, major in something non-specific, join the same big clubs, and hang out with the same stupid people all the time."

"But you're not like that Caroline."

"Thanks, but I'm afraid even I can be considered average in a lot of ways. I just try harder than most to keep being myself."

"I was like that, but I didn't have to try, I just stuck out without even trying."

They shared a smile and a yawn as Booth broke in: "Bones, I'm glad you two are bonding, but I'm beat, why don't we start fresh in the morning?"

"K Booth, We'll see you then." She said smiling tiredly and getting up to let Booth out.

……………..

Brennan woke with a start about two hours later to an Angela-like squeal and a thudding sound from her living room.

_What the..? Oh it must be Caroline. What could she be doing?_

She was about to find out. Getting up she walked, curious, out into the amber-toned room and found Caroline, pajama clad, jumping around in silent triumph with a file in her hands. Brennan stood there and watched the victory dance for a moment in bemused silence until the victor notice her presence and exclaimed breathlessly;

"Crap. Sorry to wake you… but you are totally going to love me!"

"That's ok. Angela does it a lot… but over the phone so it's a bit different. What was the jumping for?"

"I found him!"

"Him who?"

"Our victim! His name is Dave Johnson, he was a junior Mass-Com major, but more importantly was the first string goalie for the lacrosse team."

"How do you know? And I don't know what that means."

"Lacrosse is a sport a lot of Maryland kids play, especially ones around Baltimore, it's based on a native American game, played with a small very hard ball thrown at high speeds with netted sticks. My younger brother is a goalie for his team back home, and he has broken his right thumb twice from saving a goal shot. I knew I had seen a break like that before! So all I had to do was look for a lacrosse goalie in the files… he matches Angela's reconstruction perfectly and he's even wearing a cast on his right hand in the photo." Caroline said folding back the manila folder and handing it to Brennan who sat down on the couch with her.

"That's a definite possibility. This is really helpful. We never would have connected the fractures to lacrosse so fast without you." Brennan continued looking over the file. Everything tracked with the evidence. "Booth is going to be your biggest fan tomorrow morning."

"_Our_ biggest fan Dr. Brennan." She said motioning between the two of them. Brennan looked up from the file. _Ok, now I officially like this girl…_

"I think you can call me Tempe or Brennan, like Angela does. I think we'd be considered friends now. Just don't call Booth 'Seeley' he doesn't really like it."

She giggled; partially at the thought of calling Agent Booth 'Seeley', and also at Brennan's awkward attempt to convey appreciation and friendship by putting them on a first name basis.

"K."


	3. What we all want to say

And Booth _was_ their biggest fan the next morning when he picked them up in his giant FBI-Issue SUV.

"Lacrosse? Bones I had no idea you even knew what that was."

"I didn't. Caroline explained it to me." She admitted sheepishly.

"But Bren confirmed that the theory was plausible, so she deserves as much credit as me." Said the voice from the backseat. "Don't you love us so much Booth?"

Booth's face went from a laugh to a soft smile and he thought to himself; _She has no idea._

When they arrived at the Jeffersonian Zach was waiting with Dave Johnson's orthopedic records.

"Dave Johnson broke his right first metacarpal three times, at ages twelve seventeen, and nineteen. I have confirmed his identity by x-rays from the most recent break."

"Cause of death?" Brennan asked.

"Not apparent as of yet."

"Correction: Cause of death was an overdose of painkillers; Hydromorphone or Vicodin most likely, the tissue is too degraded to be specific, as well as a fall from a height of about thirty feet." Cam said appearing out of seemingly nowhere, or the pathology lab.

"As well as?" Brennan asked confused.

"Yes, I can't tell which actually killed him, he was given enough drugs to kill himself, and that fall would have also killed him, but I can't be sure which happened first. It's almost as if it happened simultaneously. Bruising also indicates the he was in a struggle shortly before death, so homicide is most probable."

"Great work Cam. Now I've got something to spring on the roommate and parents about when we question them. Which is in 45 minutes. Need anything from your office Bones? Cause we gotta get going over to the FBI."

"I'm all ready Booth, Caroline? Do you want to come?"

"No thanks Tempe. Angela is going to teach me how to use the Angelator."

………………..

"Angela?" Caroline asked as the artists sat in the Holographics office starting up the Angelator.

"Yea Hon?"

She looked wistfully out of the glass wall at Booth and Brennan who were leaving to question the roommate, his hand guiding at the small of her back "Have you tried anything but talking to her?"

"Not as of yet… She'd definitely kick my ass, Bren is who she is, it will happen by itself sooner or later. She knows how I feel about the situation, but she can't really see for herself yet."

"I get it… but I can't help but think, that in their line of work, they may not have a later. I mean, how many times did you say they have almost died?"

Angela's smile suddenly turned to a look of gravity, "Between the both of them, way too many. And I've never really thought about 'sooner or later' that way."

"The two things everyone in the world has in common is that we all will die, and none of us get to know when."

"You know…" conspired Angela, "between the both of us, we might be able to give her a little push. Booth is all for it, but he, as the 'gentleman' refuses to make the first move unless he is absolutely certain she is ready."

"Men." The pair began to laugh, "but seriously Caroline, I think an outsider's point of view might do her some good… She certainly seems to trust you."

"So what do I say?"

"Say only what you know to be true, that's all she hears. Now, the program is up and I will proceed to impart the wisdom and amazingness that is the Angelator."

"So glad you're so modest 'teach." Caroline ribbed as the both of them dissolved into giggles once more.

The Angelator was much more complicated than she had anticipated, but was a little less so after a few hours with the program's namesake. Later, from the couch in Brennan's office, Caroline observed the inhabitant of said office enter the lab at the side of her G-man partner.

"I don't think it was the roommate, and I can't read faces or body language like you can."

"Did all of the crying tip you off Bones? I thought I was going to need a coast guard rescue in there."

"Booth it is scientifically impossible to drown in someone's tears, unless you were being metaphoric, then your usage makes sense."

"Thanks for the permission to use figures of speech Bones, but how about you and the squint squad work some of your magic on them there bones and get back to me. I've got some pointless paperwork just begging to be ignored."

"Sure Booth." His lady scientist said with the adorable thin smile that meant she was laughing at him. He loved that smile.

………………

Brennan headed over to her office and found Caroline on one her couches drawing a skull from her desk. Caroline greeted the anthropologist, inquired after the morning's questioning, what they were going to do next, and went back to her drawing. Brennan sat and began a chapter for her new book, she was surprised that Caroline didn't ask to read it once, she was so used to beating her friends and colleagues off with the metaphorical stick. The lab's bug and slime guy burst in about an hour later, in true Hodgins fashion and spoke without taking a breath:

"I found traces of commercial alcohol on the remains so I had Booth get a list of all the parties busted late last spring. One party, on the last day of classes, that was busted last year for underage drinking also included a list of students who were detained for questioning about a stash of Hydromorphone found at the scene; the list included 6 of the University's lacrosse players, one of which was the second-string goalie. That party was the last place many students remember seeing David Johnson, who was not detained for questioning because he could not be located."

Caroline, who had looked down at her sketchbook about halfway through his speech, looked up and waved an index finger in Hodgins' direction. "Bingo baby. Motive, party of one."

Brennan was obviously confused "Why bingo baby? He went to parties and probably did drugs. Don't most college students do that?"

Caroline explained, "Yea Tempe, but the second string goalie gets Dave's spot on the team if he disappears, not to mention gets his first string scholarship." Brennan and Hodgins looked for her to explain. "First-string players who keep up their GPA pay 30 less on their tuition as long as they remain active on the team."

"I'd better call Booth."

A few minutes later Brennan was finishing her conversation with Booth, who was suitably excited about the new suspect.

"… and Zach just told me that his preliminary examination of the cleaned bones shows no evidence of peri-mortem defensive wounds, so there wasn't a violent struggle."

"The drug was probably slipped to him over the course of the party and his collapse from the overdose could have easily been blamed on the drinking he had been doing. The second-stringer drags him outside, snap; tosses him off the bridge and heads home for the summer, thinking that the death will be declared a suicide. Alright squints!"

"But no one found the body until now. Booth, go arrest the other goalie and I'll have Angela work up a scenario to confirm the evidence."

Caroline was way ahead of her; she ran to Angela's office, relayed the info, and made it back, just as Brennan was hanging up with Booth. She took a slow breath and held it. _It's now or never Caroline… you know what you want to say, so say it already. _Exhale.

"I told her. She's already started."

"Great. Thank you."

"Brennan… can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"It's a personal question, so you have to promise to hear me out and not get upset."

"Okay. I think I can do that."

"This might be prying, but have you ever thought seriously about death? I mean yours. You are surrounded by it everyday and yet the unexpectedness and unpredictability of death, is something Angela said she has never really thought about."

She paused here for a second, but Temperance just stared at her, speechless. So Caroline got up her nerve and continued.

"I asked her about your relationship with Booth and she explained it to the best of her knowledge. From that and what I've seen the past few days, I've gathered that you have a very professional partnership, but one that seems deeper even than some marriages I've encountered. As I applaud your friendship and commitment to helping each other there is something else that is a little confusing; the fact that you and Booth are both single, and according to Angela, who seems like she'd know, neither of you have had anything more than a casual fling or very short relationship in years. That in itself is kind of contradictory to your deep and connected partnership with him."

Brennan stared blankly into the computer screen considering this revelation and her mind came back with absolutely nothing; _that_ had never happened before. She had no idea how to respond; except to let Caroline continue.

"Angela also said that Booth told you once that 'everything happens eventually' but what if there is no eventually? If this plane of existence is all we have, like you've said you believe and we don't know when it will end, shouldn't we take full advantage of the time we do have? Murder is the cruelest and most inhumane way to leave this earth, especially because it ends a life right in the middle. You guys spend all day, five or six days a week, examining and dissecting evidence and motives; how is it that the sheer magnitude of death never enters your minds? You and Booth have almost died, several times! We always think about what we will do tomorrow, where we will be in a year or five years, where we want to live or what we want to work on; when we cannot even say for certain that we will actually be alive to see tomorrow."

She paused in her diatribe to let Tempe soak all of this in, and when she saw the scientist look up Caroline finished with the main question.

"Why then Temperance, do you continually tell Angela that you cannot explore your relationship with Booth any further, when you obviously have more of a connection with him than anyone, male or female, you have met in the past three years?

Still nothing. Dr. Temperance Brennan, who always had an answer, was at a loss because of an 18-year old. Caroline took in her silence; smiled, and handed her a book. It was _Romeo and Juliet._ "Think about it. I'm here if you want some more reasons: logical, rational, or possibly even visual. Like page 12. And Tempe…" she finished gently, "you really don't want to miss this part of life, even if it is just chemicals reacting in your brain."

With that, Caroline left Brennan's office in silent triumph, because she had been able to get out of the room without Tempe saying a word. Angela had told her that this was the key; if she was allowed to leave without anything being said, it meant that Brennan was honestly thinking about it.

As the girl left, Brennan registered the last few things she had said and turned to the 12th page of the thin volume. She found a photograph, most likely taken by Angela; of her and Booth from behind probably taken as they were leaving the lab at some point, his hand at the small of her back, protecting her, and her letting him. A small highlighted section on the page then caught her eye:

'_Romeo: __O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;_

_They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.'_


	4. Solved and Unsolved

She sat there for ten minutes, mulling over the argument her new, albeit very observant friend had made, until Angela came in and said "Sweetie, I need your help with the scenario. Can the book wait until tonight?

"What book? Oh, my book. No, I was just… um, never mind." Angela only smiled, an 18 year-olds opinion had befuddled her best friend. Ecstatic as she was that Brennan was mulling, unfortunately she really did need her help with the simulation, so she followed the anthropologist over to the Holographics office without a word. Meanwhile, Booth was having a whole lot of 'fun' interrogating the young lacrosse goalie that he had recently picked up.

"I wouldn't kill Dave! He was my best friend! He was helping me get better at goal keeping so I could play 1st when he graduated!" He said angrily, his blonde shaggy hair shaking emphatically with each exclamation.

"Maybe you couldn't wait until he graduated." Booth probed.

"I didn't kill him!" Booth took a moment to stare the kid down and didn't see any evidence of untruth, so he asked a different question.

"So what happened to him?"

"I don't know dude, but he was mad depressed last time we hung out. And I had to play all his away games at the end of the season, 'cause he was always missing or whatever. I don't know what happened to him FBI guy, but he was in a real bad way for the last month before he disappeared. The last time I saw him was at that party, he started to get rough so me and a couple guys took him outside and sat him on a bench to cool off. I never saw him again, I figured he quit and went home."

……………….

"See Bren? The weight of impact and location of the body doesn't correspond to the damage that you and Zach provided from the bones, it's almost as if he was thrown from higher than the bridge, or descended slower than he should have."

"There's definitely something wrong here, have you adjusted for the weather that night?"

"Nothing to adjust. It was clear with no wind. And I factored in Dave's clothing, so that isn't the problem."

"Then it's the scenario, the second string guy didn't push or throw him off."

"Then what did?"

Zach entered with the victim's skull and a look that could almost be defined as delight. Caroline was close behind with a stack of x-rays and files. Zach explained, "I don't know about pushing but I just learned something that might be crucial." He turned over the skull, and shone his penlight inside. "I found evidence of cancer on the interior surface of his skull. I had Cam test the remaining marrow in the femur and consult the medical records, they showed a Glioblastoma multiforme; David Johnson would have been dead within a year if he hadn't died last May."

"He had brain cancer?" Brennan grabbed the folder that Caroline offered and pulled out a sheet of CT scans. Just above the Corpus Callosum was a six-centimeter mass. "A tumor of that size would have been likely to affect the bones of the skull." Her voice dropped as the severity of the disease and the pain it would have caused Dave registered in her thoughts. Sorrow filled her voice as she whispered "Wow… he never even had a chance."

"The records also state that there was no treatment scheduled, so he wasn't trying to defeat the cancer, they must have caught it too late." Zach rationalized pointing to several places in the file Brennan had opened.

"Why would somebody kill a guy with terminal brain cancer?" Angela mused aloud; Brennan held up the CT scans to the light and answered:

"I don't know…"

……………….

The rest of the day was spent reviewing Dave's medical records; nothing useful came from their search, and everyone was tired so they agreed to meet again the next morning in Angela's office. As the next morning ended they were still at a roadblock the size of Hoover Dam. The squints, Booth and Caroline sat and stood in various spots around the Angelator positing alternative scenarios for the goalie's death. Hodgins, who was sitting next to Angela in one of the desk chairs, spun around lazily and wondered aloud: "Could we have missed something?"

"We've gone over everything twice. There's nothing there to miss." said Cam, leaning against the back wall.

"The bones have been thoroughly examined and cataloged, there's no more evidence to be gotten from them." Zach added standing near the window, looking out at the beautiful November weather.

Booth groaned from his perch on a lab stool his pink and yellow striped socks peeking out from beneath his suit's trousers. "So someone is just going to get away with this one."

Brennan wasn't going to give up so easy. "No Booth, there's always more to be learned, we will find this killer. Are there any particulates not accounted for in the scenario as it stands Hodgins?" she inquired, sitting on Angela's couch with Caroline peering over her shoulder into the evidence file she was holding.

"Not except for a few things like general dust, food residues, paint chips, and ink and graphite traces under his nails that could have been picked up anywhere."

Caroline looked up quickly. " Wait, paint chips? Where on the remains were they?"

"Most were in the treads of his shoes, a few traces under his fingernails and some were in what remained of his jacket. They were just normal outdoor paint, a shade of dark red."

Caroline's thoughtful expression turned into a look of insight and then into one of annoyance as she uttered a single word. "Damn."

All six pairs of eyes were on her; Angela finally spoke up after a minute or two. "What is it Caroline?"

"I think I know what happened. Can you pull up the scenario again and input just Dave's values?"

Turning to the rest of them she said flatly, "stop me if I miss something, and I really hope you will."

She looked into the Angelator and began. "Dave had terminal brain cancer, he was a dead man walking, and had refused all treatment except palliative for the pain and to keep him from having seizures all the time. He also hadn't told anyone yet; He went to that party, maybe to hide the emotional pain, maybe because someone convinced him to or whatever: but he went. The pain of being around living people only got worse so he started to drink, something unusual for him during the lacrosse season, and when one of the guys offered him the Hydromorphone, he took it. When he began to get rowdy and violent for whatever reason, his friends forced him outside, causing the bruising that Cam found. He sat on the bench for a while chipping the paint off with his fingernails. All of the benches and railings around the dorms are painted with the same red paint, but it wasn't painted right so it chips off really easily, people sit there and do it all the time. He sat there, drenched in what was left of his miserable life; he can't play lacrosse anymore, he won't graduate, get a job or have a family. He gets up and seeing noone around he climbs up onto the railing of the bridge; he stands up there for a few minutes, long enough to get the paint in the treads of his shoes, but before he can make up his mind to jump or not, the drugs overload his system and he falls, unconscious, off the bridge."

Silence filled the room and Caroline's heart broke as Angela's adjusted scenario completed itself. Angela spoke first "It fits. Exactly. Way to go Caroline."

Before anyone else could offer thanks Caroline swallowed hard and said: "I don't want any congratulations. He committed suicide… the only bad guy we can arrest is a disease that we can't even cure." Tears began to fall from her blue eyes, the ones that almost reminded Booth of Temperance's. "_No one_ deserves to die before their life even begins." She walked out silently, wiping tears from her cheeks, leaving a solemn FBI agent and five disheartened scientists in her wake. Angela got up to follow her but Tempe touched he shoulder gently, "Can I try?"

"Of course Sweetie. Go ahead."

………………..

Caroline sat on a stool next to the table that held Dave's bones, her head resting on one of her hands, the other lightly tracing the white bones organized on the table's lighted surface. Her fingers paused in their meanderings and picked up the skull as Brennan entered.

"To be or not to be…" Brennan offered with a weak smile, figuring a joke was a good way to start. To her surprise, Caroline returned her smile and giggled a little.

"I'm ok Bren. It broke my heart to see that scenario turn out to be true, it seems so unfair; but I've thought about it a little and I'll be fine soon enough." She smiled a little brighter, "Speaking of Shakespeare, have you thought about what I said yet?"

"Yes, I have. What you said has been on my mind, and I think it would be good for him to know, so I'm going to tell him about our conversation and see what he thinks."

"Sounds like a good idea." She hopped off the stool and walked towards the door. "Is it ok if I have Angela take me to your house while you and Booth finish the paperwork?"

"That's fine. By the way, the picture I get, but the Shakespeare doesn't seem to fit."

Caroline smiled mischeviously. "Ask Booth about that. Oh, and I'll order some food for you guys in a couple hours, so it will be waiting when you get there. See ya later Tempe!"

"See you…" Brennan answered in a far-away voice; _can I really talk to Booth? What if he disagrees? What if he won't work with me anymore? But he, like our victim's families and everyone else, deserves to know the truth._


	5. Shakepeare and Jesus vs Rationality?

An hour and a half later they were done. The FBI's paperwork was finished, the remains packed up and on their way to the Johnson's chosen funeral home, and two exhausted people sat in Brennan's office packing files and evidence back into various boxes.

"Booth, I need to tell you something… it's been bothering me since she said it… and I need your thoughts."

"Who said what?... never mind… Shoot, Bones."

" Well Caroline sai… wait you've said that before, it's a colloquialism for 'go ahead' right?"

"Yea Bones, so go ahead." He said anxiously, wanting to know what she had said to bother his brilliant partner."

"Well she started by asking me if I ever really considered death, my death. Which was a pretty heavy question, and then she asked that if our partnership was so strong and committed, then why can't either of us commit to anyone else, I think she meant romantically… but then she quoted Angela quoting you, the 'everything happens eventually' thing; on top of that though, and this is the part that has been bothering me, she said… well I thought it was such a good argument that I wrote it down" Brennan handed Booth a sheet of notepaper with a paragraph written on it:

_If this plane of existence is all we have, like you said you believe and we don't know when it will end, shouldn't we take full advantage of the time we do have?... You and Booth have almost died, several times! We always think about what we will do tomorrow, where we will be in a year or five years, where we want to live or what we want to work on; when we cannot even say for certain that we will actually be alive to see tomorrow."_

Booth was speechless, but not for the reason his partner thought, because she continued explaining:

"It's a really good argument, she ended by asking me why you and I were so reluctant to take our relationship beyond the platonic, and Booth, I didn't have an answer to give her."

She turned around and picked up the copy of _Romeo and Juliet_ that Caroline had given her and handed it to her still speechless partner. "This is the part I wanted your help with. Page 12."

Booth turned to the page and smiled softly at the picture and the words, "Bones, do you know what those two lines talk about?"

"Yes. Romeo's telling Juliet that it is up to her to save his soul, metaphorically speaking; he's telling her he can't do without her and holding her hand isn't enough for him. The religious metaphor is a continuation of the play's themes; religion, fate, love, among others. But I don't really see the connection."

Booth smiled gainly at Brennan, who had no idea what he was getting at. "Everything's about faith and fate Bones. And be glad this was my favorite play in high school, because in these lines, it's Juliet's choice; Romeo's putting the ball in her court. The object of his love, the woman, is all that stands between his salvation and despair. He's a man who is looking for the return of his feelings, but isn't sure if he's going to get permission without getting a broken wrist."

She blushed at his implication "We're not talking about Shakespeare anymore are we Booth?"

His eyes grew darker as he saw the realization appear in her eyes, causing her to blush even more. He stepped closer and held up his hand, palm out. "No, we aren't."

Her palm met his. The electricity in that simple touch and her whispered words gave him the permission he sought.

"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."

So he kissed her. Once. One gentle kiss, a caring gesture that melted the line between them and merged their silhouettes in the dim light of her office.

He stepped back, heart racing, and moving his hand to her wrist placed a similarly tender kiss to her palm. He laced his large fingers in her delicate ones and whispered in her ear, his words causing a flutter in her heart that she had never experienced before.

"We can save each other's souls, Temperance. They complete one-another. As much time as we have, we'll be together for it."

A statement of romantic commitment, along with a swoon-inducing use of her first name, and she didn't even want to run. All she could do was smile like a maniac at the beautiful man who was offering her the world._ Maybe I was wrong before. I don't think I want to miss this anymore._

…………..

Caroline was surrounded by Thai food but had no inclination to eat it, she was too excited for the couple that she had witnessed making out in the parking lot before skulking into Brennan's apartment building after the parking lot's floodlights turned on for the night. Nothing was different in their verbal interaction, but they couldn't hide the grins that kept escaping from the depths of their barely concealed joy.

"Booth! That's irrational. You can't live on peanut butter and Oreos. They wouldn't keep you alive on the desert island for more than a week."

"Bones, the point of the game isn't to actually stay alive it's to be happy while you're on the island. Why don't we try books. Three books Bones, go."

"The Human Bone Manual, Bones: A Forensic Detectives Casebook, and my favorite issue of the Journal of Forensic Anthropology."

"Par-tay Bones, but I wouldn't have expected anything else. Caroline?"

"Pride and Prejudice, a stargazing book and The Bible. How about you Booth?"

"I'd bring the Bible too… and Bones' novels, so I can read about myself."

"For the last time Booth…" She didn't even finish before he shushed her and interrupted:

"You can't hide it anymore Bones, you've been pining for me."

"I have not."

"Have too."

"Have not."

"You so have."

"Well so have you."

"That's not the point."

"It's the same thing!"

"Whatever Bones. But you have too."

"Have not."

Caroline just laughed and threatened to call Angela and tell her everything, which shut them both up, but only for a second.

"How do you know?" Brennan asked incredulously once she had gotten over the shock of being found out so fast.

"Who told you?" Booth demanded, fearing the affair had become common knowledge before he had even taken it past first base.

Caroline laughed again. "So I take it this is going to be a secret for a while?" Their shy looks back and forth were answer enough. "Don't worry, I won't tell. It's your thing, but they'll probably figure it out soon enough. They are geniuses after all. I'm glad I could help convince you guys not to wait too long, there are so many stories of people who put things off until later and then never get a chance. The future isn't just vague; it's completely unknowable, and too many people forget that."

Booth smiled as her comment reminded him of what had been so astonishing about the speech in the first place " By the way, James 4:14. Nice work."

Caroline returned his smile with a questioning one. "So you're…"

"Catholic." Booth answered, the conspiratorial nuance in his voice going right over Brennan's head.

"Cool. I'm just plain Christian." She answered in a similar manner, then enigmatically added "I guess it's even more effective on you then huh?"

"Definitely."

"What are you guys talking about?"

They shared a smile at Brennan's confusion. Booth gave her hand a squeeze. "I'll explain it later Bones."

"You guys talk. I'm gonna to go to bed." Caroline got up and moved towards the guest room but before she closed the door she turned and with a wicked smile warned the couple:

"If you really want it to stay a secret, hooking up in the parking lot is _not_ the way to do it."

They laughed; and taking advantage of the fact that they were now alone Booth ran a hand down the side of her cheek, tucking her hair behind her ear, and kissing her on the forehead for being so adorable during the 'desert island' game. Brennan looked into his eyes with a smile of contentment on her face. He couldn't blink, she was so beautiful.

"Bones, do you really want to keep it a secret?"

"Why don't we let them figure it out on their own, like Caroline said, it shouldn't take long… They are very observant, or they wouldn't be scientists." she paused, obviously contemplating something deeper than the squints' observational techniques.

"Booth, what was that James thing about? And you guys talking about your religions? You said you'd explain."

"Bones, as much as you hate faith and religion, she convinced you to take a chance with me using a Bible verse. "

"She did no…" Brennan began to retort, but was silenced by another pair of lips on hers.

"Let me prove it before you dismiss it, K Bones?"

Booth, suppressing a charm smile, got up silently and went over to Brennan's quite fully stocked bookshelf, finding the religious books and there, between a traditional Koran and a Buddhist religious text, he found a small red leather-bound Bible. Walking back over to his partner he opened to James 4:14 and let her read:

_Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes… Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins._

Booth couldn't hold that charm smile in any longer as he saw her face contort adorably in confusion and then into, as she finished the passage, a visage speechless with astonishment. She looked up at him, and then back down, almost like she expected the words to change. He only chuckled.

"I guess we've finally found someone who can shut you up."

The next morning after saying her goodbyes to Brennan and Booth, Caroline said goodbye to her new friends at the lab, who each promised to keep in touch via email.

"Make sure and call me if you ever need anyone to take to an exhibit." she told Angela; "And Zach, you should definitely call my cousin… she's really cute and her IQ is in the stratosphere like yours, so conversation shouldn't be a problem."

Dr. Addy only blushed. Caroline then turned to Cam and gave her a friendly hug;

Cam returned her hug and smiled approvingly. "Thanks for all your help kiddo, maybe if Angela runs away to Fiji I'll give you a call."

"If?..." goaded Angela facetiously.

"OK so I'll call you _when _Angela runs off to Fiji." Cam said with a laugh.

"Only if I'm going too." declared Hodgins entering the lab, giving Caroline a farewell high five. She giggled.

"Do me a favor Hodge-podge, and keep Angela here; she's pretty excellent at what she does, and so are you… Save Fiji for a honeymoon."

Hodgins chuckled and twirled a beaming Angela into his arms. "Will do Missy."

With that, Caroline headed out of the lab, waving to Booth and Brennan as they walked by, coming in to review the newest case. They were sweetly and innocently holding hands, fingers interlaced, as they passed the squints, and then disappeared into Brennan's office.

Cam and Zach only stared after them, jaws on the floor.

But Angela didn't skip a beat. "Guys… Did I just see what I think I saw?" she said with a grin rivaling the Cheshire cat's.

"Yea baby, you did." Hodgins replied, a touch of bewilderment in his normally assured voice.

"Good, just making sure before I did this…"

Angela's squeal of delight was heard all the way in paleontology.


End file.
